SUCCESS!!
What a fantastic time we had this weekend at the Millennium Hotel in Buffalo, New York for the 4th annual Great Lakes Christian Film Festival, with over 80 films screened during the 4 day event (August 2-5, 2018).
We kicked it off at the Bread of Life Church in South Buffalo screening many foreign, student, shorts films, capped off with a stand up comedy documentary. The remainder of the festival was held at the Hotel from Friday to Sunday with a jam packed schedule, screening 14 hours of film on Friday and again on Saturday, then 8 more hours on Sunday before the finale.
Saturday afternoon, we had some incredible speakers and guests, each sharing their unique workshops on various topics, including Hollywood Exposed (Tina Marie Griffin), Kindness Activity (Phillip E Walker), Screenwriting (DonnaMarie Vaughan), and Marketing for Movies (Sharon Wilharm). We also had a great group discussion on the Film Financing and Distribution, with various industry professionals, Producers, Directors, Writers, and Marketing people. We ended the workshops with a Buffalo-style dinner with Pizza and Wings from a local Pizzeria called Johnny’s.
Mercedes E Wilson hosted the Awards Ceremony Sunday Night giving us a glimpse of her vocal talent leading us in a song to our Lord Jesus. The ceremony was very intimate as we came together after a long weekend to celebrate each other and congratulate the selections, nominees, finalists, and winners of this year’s festival.
We have already see the fruit of our labor as many films over the years have been picked up for distribution or broadcasting, as well as, listing as a top seller on streaming websites, like Genesis: Paradise Lost (GLCFF 2018 winner of Best Producer for a Documentary and Best Narration). We are excited when these hardworking production teams get their reward for their efforts.
THANK YOU
“I personally want to thank the volunteers that helped us throughout the festival that made it a success.” says Shawn Patrick Greene, Executive Director and Founder.
Carl Bailey (Photographer/Filmmaker) helped us tremendously Saturday during the workshops, assisting the presenters and documenting the sessions. He was also on last year’s Producer/Director Panel Discussion for 2017.
Linda Mesi (Actress/Production Assistant) was instrumental in keeping things organized during Sunday Night’s Awards Ceremony. She has participated and supported our festival from day one in 2015.
Gary Rubrick is a member of the Bread of Life Church and has assisted, since the inaugural year in 2015, in the production, programming, and organization behind the scenes of Sunday Awards Ceremony.
Rosemarie Feliciano for her help in transporting equipment and materials to and from the event. Another one that has helped since day one, not to mention the mother of my autistic daughter Moriah.
Sean Brennan (TCT Studio Manager, Buffalo) believed in our vision and mission and gave us an opportunity to be a guest on TCT’s local programming twice, to promote our festival. Sean also donated his audio equipment for the workshops this year.
We want to thank all of our partners, sponsors, supporters, promoters, members, volunteers, attendees, judging panel, presenters, and everyone that made this event a complete success. It couldn’t be done without your help.
All Glory and Honor goes to our King and our God, Jesus the Christ!
SAVE THE DATE!!
The deadlines for the Great Lakes Christian Film Festival have past and the reviewing process is underway. This year we have over 100 films to watch and determine which ones are best suited for our festival. The filmmakers or producers will be notified July 2, 2017 if their film is selected for this year’s film festival. Everyone can Pre-Register Early: 
You would think after two years of watching every film it would get easier to select the best of the best. Each year, there have been amazing films which made it extremely difficult to make the selections, nominees and winners. This year is no exception. Reviewing has been in effect since April and we have some potential winners already.
One of the things that is disappointing is when we get high quality, professional projects that could very easily win many top awards, such as the Oscars, Golden Globes, People’s Choice, etc. The problem we’ve had was the content was too adult, and not family friendly, and/or did not meet the criteria as a Christian theme, or faith-based presentation.
WOW! 3 years already. Time is flying by. We are excited to announce we are hosting the event at a NEW location, central to the Buffalo area in the 
